Prior secured bank charge prevails over later State tax attachment, protecting the auction purchaser's title and removing the encumbrance.

A prior registered bank charge over a guarantor's self-owned property prevails over a later State tax attachment. Because the auctioned asset was not the borrowing firm's property, the subsequent governmental claim could not displace the secured creditor's priority or sustain an encumbrance against the sale certificate. The later attachment was therefore unsustainable, and the auction purchaser's title remained protected from the State tax claim.

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Issues: Whether the State tax attachment could survive against the prior secured interest of the bank in the auctioned property and whether the encumbrance reflected in the sale certificate was liable to be removed.

Analysis: The property sold in auction was found to be the self-owned property of a third-party guarantor and not the asset of the borrowing partnership firm. The bank's charge was registered prior in point of time, whereas the State attachment was created later. Applying the principle that a secured creditor's prior charge prevails over subsequent governmental claims, and following the settled position on priority of secured debts over crown debts, the later attachment could not defeat the bank's secured interest or burden the auction purchaser's title.

Conclusion: The State attachment could not prevail over the bank's prior secured charge, and the encumbrance shown against the property was not sustainable.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was allowed and the provisional and final attachment orders were quashed, thereby protecting the auction purchaser's title from the later State tax claim.

Ratio Decidendi: A prior secured charge of a bank overrides a later State attachment, and a subsequent governmental claim cannot displace the secured creditor's priority or continue as an encumbrance on the sold property.

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